John 1:1-13

1:14So on election night, the paper relied on a veteran political analyst and early returns from the polls. Does this sound familiar? And printed the headline, Dewey Defeats Truman. Well, of course, that turned out to be fake. News, some of the earliest fake news that there was, and it gave us one of the lasting images of the 20th century: this picture of President Truman holding a copy of that paper at the train station on his way back to Washington to resume office as President of the United States.

1:49And it also gave us an enduring lesson that whether you think the news is good or bad, the most important thing is that it's true. We spent the fall doing something very unusual for us here at our church. We did a topical series called Back to the Basics, where we covered a bunch of the fundamental and foundational teachings of Christianity and the church. And starting today, we're going to be getting back to what I would call our bread and butter here at New Life, which is verse-by-verse expositional preaching through books of the Bible. And we chose the Gospel of John that we're going to be going through, as Caleb said, forever.

2:33Till next spring, 2023, we're going to be going through the Gospel of John because it seemed like such a logical follow-up to the Back to the Basics series. The word gospel literally means good news. And the Gospel is not advice, it is news about a historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, and what he said and did throughout his life, his death, and his resurrection from. The dead on our behalf for our salvation. The Apostle John is the author of this gospel, and he was one of Jesus' original 12 disciples. He was a member of the innermost circle of Peter, James, and John.

3:15And more than that, from all the evidence that we have, it seems that he was Jesus' best friend. He never once refers to himself by name in his writing. He just refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. So there's a flex for you. Scholars tell us that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all wrote their gospel accounts earlier than John wrote his, but it's likely that John at least knew about, if not read, those gospel accounts. But his gospel is very different than these other three accounts, especially different from Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke spend a lot of time, they give a lot of detailed background information about Jesus' birth and genealogy.

3:59They read a lot more like biographical accounts. There's a lot of Jesus' teaching in those other gospels, especially Matthew and Luke. But John's not trying to do that. He's not trying to write a biographical account. He's not trying to present much of Jesus' teaching, although surely he thought those things were very important. No, instead, he gives his purpose statement at the end of his gospel. I want you to take a look at what he writes in John chapter 20.

4:27Now, Jesus did many other signs in the Presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. So that is John's purpose. He's totally upfront about that purpose. He wants you to read His gospel, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and be saved. That's what he wants. He is not presenting Jesus as a good guy, as a great teacher, as the most interesting man who has ever lived.

5:11He's not doing any of those things. John believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that the only way to be forgiven and reconciled to God is through faith in him. So his entire gospel, everything that he records, is written with that purpose in mind. He's trying to show you the evidence that would lead you to the same conclusion that he came to after walking with Jesus for three years, seeing him crucified, seeing him buried, and then interacting with him after he rose from the grave on the third day.

5:46But his gospel is not just for the unconvinced, for those who don't know about Jesus or who don't believe that Jesus is the Christ. It's also for all of us who already believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Of God, so that we might be reminded of who he is, what he said and did, and what that means for us as his followers today. So, this morning we're going to cover most of John's introduction to his gospel.

6:15And those of us who already believe in Jesus, hopefully, will be reminded and encouraged about who Jesus is. And my hope and prayer is that those of you who don't yet believe that Jesus is the Christ will be persuaded that he is. And so, what we're going to see today in John 1:1 through 13 is that all who receive Jesus also receive the right to become children of God. Let's take a look at verse 1 together.

6:48John deliberately begins with the exact same phrase that's used to begin the Bible, the book of Genesis. He uses this phrase in the beginning, and he does this not to take us back to the days and months before Jesus was born, not to take us back to the time of his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not even to take us to the beginning of human history. Now, John uses this phrase in the beginning to refer to eternity past, to time before time, to time before creation.

7:25And what we learn is that the word, in Greek, that's the law goes. The word was there in the beginning, in eternity past. Now, if you skip down and look at verse 14, you will see if you look there that John testifies, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, John is saying that the word is Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, a very important question at this point is: why does John use this name for Jesus?

8:04Why does he call him the word? That's a name that none of the other gospel writers use for Jesus. It's a name that Jesus never used for himself. So, why does John use this term? Well, friends, I believe that John chose the term the word to refer to Jesus because it is a concept that was familiar to both Jews and Gentiles that did not have the same baggage as a lot of the other terms that would have been used for Jesus, like the Christ or the Messiah or the Son of God.

8:37And so, in the Old Testament, God and his word are inseparable. His word is inextricably linked to who he is. And we understand that because when we are making a promise to someone, what do we say? You have my word. And what do we mean when we say that? We mean, you can trust me. You can. Trust what I'm saying, you can know that what I've said to you and promised to you is true because you can trust my character.

9:07You know me and you know my character. So, for the Jews, the word of God and God Himself were basically synonymous. In fact, since they considered God's name so holy, anytime they came across the word Yahweh, the name of God in the Old Testament, they would often substitute the word of God for his name. That's how closely they linked the word and God. Now, in Greek philosophy, the word or the logos was the eternal principle of reason that governed the world.

9:43It was an impersonal principle that gave order to the universe. So, in this first phrase, John has essentially affirmed at least some aspect of Jewish theology and Greek philosophy. He's establishing this common ground for Jews and Gentiles that the word is eternal, and they both could agree on that. But now, John's going to start stepping on some toes, some Jewish toes and some Gentile toes, with his next phrase. Take a look at what he says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

10:20So, now John is saying that the Word is eternal, but so is God. And the Word is somehow distinct from. God. The word with implies a distinction. So I wouldn't say, I'm here this morning and I brought my arm with me. My arm is part of me. So if I'm here, my arm is here. The word with implies a distinction. So what John is saying is that while the word has always existed, the word exists in a way that is somehow distinct from God, who has also always existed.

11:00Now the Jews would struggle with that statement because John is making a distinction between God and the Word of God, and as strict monotheists, they would have a problem with the idea that anyone or anything besides God is eternal. And the Gentiles would struggle with the idea that one God has always existed eternally alongside the Word, the Logos. But that's exactly what John says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. So the Word is eternal, and so is the one true God. The Gentiles would have a problem with that.

11:39But John's final claims are really the things that are going to send both groups over the edge. Look at what he says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. John just personalized the Word of God. He called the word he, saying he, the word, is God. Now, to the Jews, that's blasphemy, plain and simple. John just said that the word is a person, and that the person is the eternal God. And to the Gentiles, this goes against everything that they believe. Because remember, they thought of the word, the logos, as this impersonal, eternal principle that governed the universe. They did not believe that the word was personal or a person, and they would have never accepted the idea that the word would become a person or want to become a person. Because remember, in Greco-Roman thought, the material world, including our bodies, was evil. So the word would never unite with human flesh or any part of the material world. So John has offended both Jews and Gentiles with this claim.

12:57Then in verse 3, he takes it a step further. Take a look. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. So again, John is drawing his Jewish audience back to Genesis 1, where we have God creating all things out of nothing by his word, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. For his Gentile audience, John is now challenging. Challenging the belief that the world has always existed, a belief that many people still hold today, or the belief that the world and God are the same thing, what we call pantheism. It's evident in Hinduism and Buddhism and some other New Age religions.

13:50All things were made, how? Through the Word. Without Him, nothing that exists was made. So the Word was not created. He is the Creator. And the Word isn't the universe. The Word is distinct from the universe. So, friends, what John is doing here is he's espousing a Christian Trinitarian worldview and theology. This idea that God has always existed eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He's challenging the Jewish belief that God is only one person. And he's challenging the Gentile belief that there are many gods, or that there is no God, or that God and the universe are the same thing. He's challenging all of those beliefs. Against all those beliefs, he's saying there is one God who has expressed himself eternally in three persons, and that the word is one of those persons. He has eternally existed with God.

14:56Verse 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So, John continues these allusions to Genesis 1 with life and light, these concepts. He says, Life is found in the word. Because, as John has already established, the word created all things. He made all things, and as Paul tells the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, he gives life and breath and everything to all mankind.

15:42And John says, His life was the light of men, meaning that he is the source of revelation, the source of understanding about God and his world that we live in. This is what he means when he says that he is the light of the world. And this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 9. Take a look at what Isaiah said. We talk about this often at Christmastime. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

16:21So, some 600 years later, when Jesus came onto the scene and he is teaching later in this gospel, this is what John records in chapter 8. Look, again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus is the light of the world. And as John says in verse 5, the darkness has not overcome it. That's because darkness cannot overcome light.

17:00Light can overcome darkness. You can bring light into a dark room. But darkness cannot overcome light. You cannot import darkness into a room that is lit. Darkness can't overcome light. And Jesus has come. He's brought light to our dark world, a world that's darkened by sin and the curse. He has revealed God and God's salvation for us. So the light is here, and darkness cannot overcome it. Indeed, it has not overcome it. Friends, what an opening this is. There is enough here in these first five verses to keep Jews and Gentiles engaged in debate for centuries, and that's exactly what's happened. John is testifying to the truth of who the word is. Jesus Christ is eternal with God, part of the Trinity. He's always existed. He's created all things. And now, As John is going to say, and we'll explore next week, he has taken on flesh to come and dwell among us in order that we might be saved.

18:08These are John's incredible claims, claims that he's going to try to back up through the rest of his gospel account. And whether you believe these claims or not is really going to depend on whether you believe that John and the rest of the witnesses that he's going to call in his gospel are trustworthy. Do you think that you can believe him and believe these people who saw and talked to and interacted with and were healed by and experienced Jesus of Nazareth?

18:42That's the question before us. Can we believe the witnesses? And so, beginning in verse 6, what John is going to do is he's going to call the first witness to the stand, so to speak, a man whose name was also John. But this is John the Baptist. So let's meet him in verse 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

19:24In Luke's gospel that we covered during the Christmas season, he records. The details of John's birth and the words that the angel Gabriel spoke to his father Zechariah. He told him that John was going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and minister in the power and spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah. John came to bear witness. And that word witness is the Greek word marturion. It's where we get our word martyr. And a martyr is someone who bears witness or testifies to the facts about what they've seen.

20:09Now, bearing witness was a big deal in the ancient world, and it's still a big deal today. That's why in the ninth commandment, God forbids bearing false witness, and why, in our own system of court, our court of law, it is a punishable offense if you bear false witness, if you lie on the stand. So John's job was to come and bear witness. And according to Luke, this job was assigned to him before he was ever conceived. And his witness, his testimony, was that Jesus is the light of the world. And he testified to that so that all people would believe in him.

20:51But, friends, you and I, all throughout the scripture, are also called witnesses. Take a look at what Jesus says. In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, after his resurrection, he says to those early disciples, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses, my martyrs, in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. You will be my witnesses. You will testify about me. You will tell others the truth, the news about what I have accomplished in my life, death, and resurrection. You will bear witness to me.

21:36So John the Baptist came to bear witness about the light so that all would believe. And John the Apostle wrote his gospel so that anybody who reads it will come to the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and be saved. And friends, you and I are called to bear witness so that the people that God places in our lives will know that we too believe that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. We are called to make disciples of all who believe in him.

22:12Church, that is a high and holy calling. It's an unbelievable privilege to share the good news with our friends and our family, our classmates and our co-workers. But I'm not sure that we always see it that way. We were challenged last week in Romans 12 with these words from the Apostle Paul. Take a look: Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Church, the gospel is the good news. Jesus is life and the light of men.

22:57It is true that some people in our life do not want to hear about Jesus. It is true that others in our lives won't ever want to hear about Jesus. But will that silence us? Will that keep us from sharing the good news of Jesus and the only hope that they have for forgiveness and reconciliation with God? I was thinking this week about Paul's vision in Acts chapter 16, where in the vision, he sees this man from Macedonia who is pleading with him and urging him, come over here to Macedonia and help us.

23:38And just thinking about how many of our friends and relatives, how many people in our own community would say that to us if they could, if they had the words, come over here and help us. They don't know the truth about Jesus Christ. We assume that everyone around us knows the truth about Jesus because we live in America, but friends, Many people don't. So, will we be slothful in zeal? Will our fervor for the Lord burn out? Or will we, like John the Baptist and John the Apostle, be his witnesses here in our community and to the end of the earth because we think that the gospel really is good news and because we believe that there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Jesus Christ.

24:31Verse 9: The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

25:20John the Baptist was preparing the way because the true light was coming into the world. But when the true light came Into the world. He was neither recognized nor received. According to verse 10, the Gentiles did not recognize him. Look again at verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. Nearly every Gentile that came into contact with Jesus did not recognize him as the Son of God. They didn't know him, they didn't recognize him.

26:05And again, back in Acts chapter 17, when Paul is addressing the Athenians, I want you to look at what he preaches to them after seeing these statues to all of these idols, including one to an unknown God. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

26:47See, the Gentiles did not know God, and they didn't recognize him when he came in the flesh. So Paul had to go and proclaim this God who is unknown. And unrecognized to them so that they may believe. And some did. Friends, this is increasingly what we are up against in our own context. Many people in our country have not actively rejected Jesus. They haven't even recognized him. 20 years ago, when we were in college, it was uncommon to find a student at Texas AM that did not have some kind of a church background. I mean, almost everybody had some experience with church. They grew up in church. Their parents were professing believers.

27:44But that's just not the case anymore. From all of my conversations with college students, the majority of students that we run into these days do not have a church background. They haven't read the Bible. No one in their life, in their immediate family, has told them the truth about Jesus. Even if they know a little bit of information, a little bit of historical facts about him, they don't know. And friends, in these cases, we are called to proclaim a God who is unknown to them, just as Paul had to do in Athens.

28:21And in some ways, that's very refreshing because they don't have to unlearn a bunch of unbiblical ideas from a quasi-Christian other person. Upbringing, like a lot of us had. But they don't recognize God in the flesh. They don't recognize Jesus. So it's no longer an issue of getting people back into church, as you will hear some people talk about. Many of the people in our generation were never in church to begin with. So we have a different task ahead of us, especially in an intellectual center like College Station, Texas. We need to embrace that and proclaim a God that is unknown, just as Paul had to do, because many have not even recognized Jesus as the Christ.

29:14But what about his own people, the Jews? Well, John says in verse 11, take a look, he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. His own people did not receive him. His people who had been waiting thousands and thousands of years for their Messiah, who had hoped and longed for this day when he would finally come and deliver them, but they didn't receive him. They rejected him. And like the other gospel writers, John bears witness to this fact.

29:54All kinds of people, mainly outsiders, Samaritans, centurions, Lepers, the blind, the lame, they received Jesus gladly. But his own people, especially the religious leaders who should have been leading the way in receiving the Messiah, they did not receive him. They rejected him. And that's because he came with a message that's hard to hear. It was hard to hear back then, and it's hard to hear today. It is the message that we cannot save ourselves. Nobody likes to be told that. The Jews did not like being told that.

30:39It's not that they thought that nobody needed salvation. In their eyes, people did need to be saved. Samaritans needed to be saved. Gentiles needed to be saved. Blasphemers and lawbreakers needed to be saved. But in their eyes, they did not need to be saved. They were the good people. So they rejected Jesus and his message of salvation. And that's what many in our context have done. Many people in our context have grown up in the church, have grown up exposed to God's Word, have grown up hearing the truth about Jesus Christ, and yet have rejected him. They may pay intellectual assent to him and to who he is, but their hearts are not surrendered to him. He is not Lord and Savior to them.

31:30And so, our task is to proclaim the good news to those who, to this point, have rejected him. And here is the good news that we find. Verse 12, take a look. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Jesus promises adoption to everyone who receives him by believing in his name. Everyone, not just a certain group of people.

32:21I want you to look at what Bruce Milne wrote about this. He said, John inhabited a world which confined its proffered salvation to specific groups. Salvation could be had through philosophy if one was intelligent, from the mystery cults, if one was initiated, by Jewish religion, if one had the right racial pedigree. So, in the ancient world, if you wanted to be saved, you had to be intelligent, initiated, or born into it. Those were the options. And then here comes Jesus preaching a different gospel. And look at what Milne says about this. In a world where rank counted for everything, and the majority of the population were slaves without rights or freedoms or any prospect of ever acquiring them, the gospel carried immense appeal as a message which promised to all people, irrespective of rank, nothing less than personal membership within the family circle of God.

33:31Friends, this is the good news of great joy that is for all people as the angels proclaimed the night that Jesus was born. This is the message, the good news of great joy. If you receive Jesus, you will receive eternal life. You will be adopted into the family of God, not because you're smart, not because you go through the right religious or philosophical or cult-like ways of reaching God, not because you were born of a certain ethnicity or in a certain place, but through faith, through believing that Jesus is exactly who He said He was, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

34:18This morning, you might be one who has never recognized Jesus as the Christ. Maybe you're here because you're looking for answers. You're looking for hope. You're looking for a fresh start in your life. If that's you, you've come to the right place. Not our church, but the Word of God. Maybe you've always believed the facts about Jesus. Maybe you're one of those who grew up in the church, who grew up hearing the Bible read. And you don't doubt that Jesus existed historically as a person.

35:05But you've only thought of him as a good man, a good teacher, someone who led an interesting life. You've never received him as Lord and Savior, which he claimed to be. Friends, Jesus is the true light that gives light to everyone. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. The world did not recognize him, and the Jews rejected him. But today, you can recognize him for who he is, the eternal Son of God, the only mediator between God and man.

35:47You can receive him rather than reject him by turning to him and placing all of your faith, all of your confidence, all of your trust for eternal life, for forgiveness and reconciliation with God in Him. Him, believing that he achieved for you what you cannot do, living a perfect, sinless life of obedience, suffering on the cross in your place for your sins, dying for you, and then rising from the grave. You can receive rather than reject him this morning, and if you receive him, you will not be rejected.

36:26You will be received by the God of the universe, and you will be received by the church, the family of God. Because we are all people who have had to come humbly to the Messiah and recognize, professing with our mouth that he is Lord, turning from our sin and believing that the only way that we can be saved is through faith in him. We put no hope in what we know. We put no hope in our religious rights. We put no hope in when and where and to whom we were born. We put all of our hope in Jesus.

37:05That's what John wants you to do. He wants you today or over the next year and a half, he wants you to read his gospel and believe the witnesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and by believing in him, have life in his name. So our hope, our prayer, and our Urge to you this morning is believe and be saved. Let's pray, Father, we are desperate for good news. People in every age are desperate for good news because there is so much bad news that we hear about and we see and we endure every single day.

38:31And the worst news of all is that try as we might, we are incapable of changing our own hearts, the things that we love, the things that we desire, the things that we worship. But, God, you are the creator of all things, you are the author of life, and you are the author of new life and new birth. So, God, we together who believe come before you this morning and we plead with you to create new life this morning.

39:13We ask that you would grant faith to those who have not recognized Jesus as the Son of God or who have rejected Him as Lord and Savior. We pray that today would be the day of their salvation, that today would be the day that they believe and are saved. We pray that their lives would never be the same because you fill them with your Spirit, fill them with faith, fill them with hope that Jesus is who He claimed to be.

39:48And, God, for all of us who already believe, we pray that you would help us to be the witnesses, the martyrs that you call us to be, that we would not fail to bear witness to you every opportunity that we get, and that we would make opportunities because this news is too good for us to be silent about. So, God, help us, we pray, to fall in love with Christ again, to embrace the Great Commission again, and to be the bearers of good news. That you call us to be.

40:34In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.